A Long Wait
Fall/Winter 2012
When it was first announced that Alexandre Plokhov was to return with his own eponymous label I was excited to say the least. Fashion moves at a blistering pace, where the new seemingly becomes the old at the moment of its very inception, and so Cloak feels less like a few years ago, to a lifetime ago. The man who was meant to become one of the best menswear designers of the decade burnt himself out and the label shuttered in 2007. The rumour mill churned out all types of possible outcomes, from the wonderous to the absurd, against which reality was decidedly more down to earth. He seemed in my eyes a perfect fit to pick up the mantle at Dior Homme, having the potential to quite easily best Slimane and really push the house forward.
But things never quite work out how you expect, especially in fashion, and Plokhov was to disappear behind the scenes at Versace. However it would seem that the move was a blessing in disguise, for were Plokhov to have gotten the job at Dior Homme it seems unlikely that he would have been able to simultaneously launch his namesake line with the same freedom. And yet after all the anticipating, and all the waiting, the initial results were...disappointing. The cuts were awkward, the fabrics looked cheap, it just did not work. There was some of the old Plokhov peeking through, and some of the garments were nice enough, but he seemed to lack direction.
Thankfully however Plokhov proved this season to have found his feet again, and boy did the waiting pay off. He did not simply pick things back up from where he had left them at Cloak, he has come a long way since then, and finally he has something to show for it. If anything this collection is a welcome maturation of style - building upon his previous strengths and presenting something, perhaps rather paradoxically, both entirely unexpected, yet thoroughly Plokhov. The sharp tailoring, the dark palette, the leather, the skirts, the raised heels, the powerful androgyny, the confidence. For me this collection had quite the middle-finger-up attitude, which is something that would ordinarily make me step back a little, but I am rather liking his gothic rockstars. Plokhov is finally back.
xxxx